


The Arc of Conflict, Edda 14g: The Battle of Oasis

by bzarcher, solarbird



Series: Of Gods and Monsters [87]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Canon-Typical Violence, Collaboration, Espionage, Explosions, F/F, False Flag, Lesbian Character, Military Training, Oasis (Overwatch), Other, Post-Talon, Post-Talon Widowmaker | Amélie Lacroix, Propaganda, Revenge, Russia, Soldier Enhancement Program, Suspicions, Talon Angela "Mercy" Ziegler, Talon Emily (Overwatch), Talon Hana "D.Va" Song, Talon Lena "Tracer" Oxton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 19:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19157254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird
Summary: Alliances, it has been said, are at their weakest on the brink of defeat, and on the brink of victory. After defeating the China Sea omnium, the gods of Oasis offered their help to Russia, to defeat their own Siberian threat, and Russia accepted that offer -  but made additional secret plans of their own.First, there was an explosion.Then another.Then another, much, much larger.Then, finally, one in words - possibly the worst of them all.Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflictis a continuance ofThe Arc of Ascension,The Arc of Creation, andThe Armourer and the Living Weapon. To follow the story as it appears,please subscribe to the series.





	The Arc of Conflict, Edda 14g: The Battle of Oasis

**Author's Note:**

> dirtyclaws has launched [a public fan-run _Of Gods and Monsters_ discord server](https://discord.gg/pDZMpVT) and invites everyone to come join it. ^_^

Oilliphéist threw herself against the cement wall of the customs house, between a demolished transport van and a sign saying "Welcome to Oasis" in several languages, starting with Arabic.

 _What **is** this?!_ she thought, breathing hard, behind the wreckage. _What is..._

She fired a shot, ricocheted off the van, and hit one of the "Talon" soldiers - an opportunity unexpected, but delightfully fatal. Or, at least, should've been - but a second and third shot finished the job.

_That first was a lucky shot, but I'll take it._

She panted, a little, or what counted as panting for her, anyway. Not out of physical need, but out of emotional memory.

_What am I feeling?_

Her heart rate high, for her, now. Her eyes wide, darting. Her nervous system humming, twitchy, faster than ever, almost too fast, making her nearly careless.

 _... **fear** ,_ she thought, excited by the prospect. _It's **fear**._

Her grin became outright manic, as the realisation hit.

 _Oh, oh, hello, fear._ She adjusted herself to take advantage of it, in ways she hadn't needed to in months.

_I've missed you more than I knew._

\-----

"What the _hell_ is going on?" Moira O'Deorain demanded, charging into the situation room.

Brigadier Fareeha Amari - the newly-appointed Oasis Minister of Military Affairs - growled at the displays. "We're under attack," she said, "obviously."

"Obviously. Russia?" she asked, assuming the answer was just as obvious.

"Of course. Except," Amari toggled a switch, glaring at the image that froze on the display, showing a soldier with the old Talon shield logo. "Pretending to be _us,_ apparently."

"Oh, of all the nerve," O'Deorain spat. "Unbelievable. How large a force? And more importantly, how did they get here?"

"Overland. We think they hiked here, camouflaged, over the desert."

That idea took Moira back slightly. "That's not easy, even in the cooler seasons."

"The force is small enough, and they aren't ordinaries."

"What?" Angela asked, flying in through the doorway. "What are they? Controlled omnics?"

"No," Fareeha shook her head. "You want my best guess, based on what I'm seeing?"

"Of course, dear."

"Please, enlighten us."

"They're SEP."

Angela froze for a moment, her face becoming grim as she gave a slow nod.

\-----

"I got nothin' at range, team," D.va reported, over comms. "This is all local aggro. You sure you don't want me on site for air support?"

 _They move like Jack_ , Tracer thought, not having time yet to respond, spinning her pistols to reload. _They move like **Jack**._

She dodged behind a metal road sign, and thumbed comms. "Stay on station, Deevs. They've already surprised us once. Might do it again."

"Okay!"

Lena's guns spat another complete set of rounds, missing half, hitting half, the half that hit having half the impact they should've had, before ducking behind another ruined transport, and keying her comms.

"Widowmaker, Oilliphéist, these are _soldiers_."

"Obviously," Widowmaker replied. "Exquisitely agile ones. I have adjusted my tracking to compensate." Another round fired, another soldier went down.

"No, I mean - like _Soldier 76_. Enhanced. A lot. Like Gabriel, like _Jack_ , but more."

She saw a grenade fly at Danielle's position, and heard her shout in pain, not quite escaping the blast radius as it hit. "You all right, love?"

"I am fine. It's... _ach..._ "

Another round of fire, and the soldier she hit fell, and she followed with a confirmation shot. "My nanite fleet is repairing the damage. They are _even quicker_ now than at first."

"Not as quick as me. Not now that I know what I'm facing."

"Me either, love," Oilliphéist's voice broke in, excitement in it. "This is... this is _wonderful_. I haven't felt like this in _ages_. I'm so happy!"

Lena couldn't help half a laugh, hearing Hana snort as well. "Chat later, lover - fight, now. Y'ever fought these?"

"No, I haven't."

"They're not just fast - really fast - they're stronger than you expect. And a hell of a lot harder to kill."

" _Good_. We should do this more often. I'm having _so much fun_."

Tracer managed a _heh_ , having to admit - it _was_ fun. She grinned, then spun 'round, firing, and watched as one of the "Talon" soldiers suddenly collapsed into a fine, black dust. For a moment, she thought, _like Gabriel_ , but the dust didn't gather, didn't travel, and did not get back up.

 _What the..._ she thought, before shaking her head clear, and moving to the next target, and firing, again.

\-----

"Fire and police responded to the initial explosion," Amari said, anger tightly controlled, professionalism ruling all, "That was after we _thought_ we had verified no incoming assault. They arrived just in time to be hit by a second set of explosions - drawn out, essentially."

Angela had gone, catching up to Michael, to coordinate emergency response, and pull wounded in from the field, even as the battle raged on.

"Classical terrorist tactics," O'Deorain said. "Not like us, even in the old days."

"I _know_ my field," Fareeha replied, snapping, and immediately sorry for it.

"I'm sorry, dear. You know I know that. I..."

"No - _I'm_ sorry," she said, touching Moria's hand, a brief reassurance. "I'm just enraged by all this. By that, in particular." She grimaced. "If it had been any of us, that would be one thing. But it wasn't. It was fire control. Ordinaries. _Unfair._ "

The video locked on Angela followed her as she dove in, resurrecting someone who had died in the remains of their fire control uniform, the goddess's pistol out and firing in one hand all the way down and back up.

"Angela's aim is quite good," Moira said, a little pleased despite the moment. "I'm surprised, particularly given how she long she's refused to fire it."

"It always has been," Fareeha replied, a little proudly. "I trained her myself, before." She smirked. "It may just have been an excuse for a date, but, well..."

"It looks like we're containing the situation at this point. Are we?"

She'd been following civilian evacuations. Incoming ground and air traffic from the outlying complexes and remote schools had been held, or turned back, all remote facilities now on lockdown. Civilians nearest the combat zone in town - even behind shielding - had been pulled back, just in case. 

"Of course. The Weapons are engaged, and they figured it out first, and now that they know, are taking charge of the field. This won't last much longer. All our forces have been informed."

"The real target will have been Koschei," Athena said, dropping into the conversation.

"Agreed," Amari nodded. "Our defenses were optimised for air attack, or regulars, but they've curtained the shields to ground level."

"I know. They are weak in that configuration."

"They are weak, but will hold against gunfire and most military explosives, in small enough amounts."

They'd built the facility for isolation, for protection against what they were bringing in, from Russia. Even the communication links were pre-digital - previous-century pure analogue, and hardwired. Copper-wire telephone, composite video, and isolated at every point. Every defence pointed outwards had been an improvisation, and she suspected the Russians knew it.

"There were a small number of our forces stationed at the holding facility. We have more en route. They'll acquit themselves well, if they have to. Even against this." She shook her head. "It will all depend upon what the Russians managed to smuggle in."

"Are we sure it's just smuggling?" Moria asked. "The Russians don't have teleporters of their own, but if they stole one..."

"No sign of teleporter signals. We're still scanning, but so far, this has to be material carried in by hand."

"Well, there's that, at least. It can't be much. Even for enhanced commando teams."

"We don't know their parametres, we don't know how strong they are, or how much stamina they have..."

She swallowed. "And it doesn't take tremendous strength to haul a small nuclear device."

As if cued by her words a massive explosion ripped across the desert, throwing survivors and dead alike across the sand, shaking the city, obscuring most cameras of all kinds.

"What the _fuck_ was that?! All stations, check in!"

"Shields still up!" reported the Vishkar technician in charge of such things. "Regeneration... only 10%? The explosion was _not_ aimed this direction."

"Sensor drones are mostly down," the situation monitor interjected. "Launching a new fleet now!"

"An EMP?" Amari asked.

"I don't think so..."

"Radiation check first!" Moira cried. "Was that a small nuclear device?"

Her eyes flicked to the health status board on her Weapons, on her wife, on her _family_. All alive. _Oh, oh, thank..._

"Drones still launching, but the fusion plant's sensors aren't showing anything abnormal, other than the impact..."

"D.va," Fareeha ordered, "move to primary site, report radiation readings and get us a visual survey."

"On it!"

"No EMP, confirmed. We've got comms. Remote facilities on the board as they report."

The observatory, furthest from the site, all clear. The experimental farm, almost as far, also clear. The moisture gathering student facility, clear. The four weather stations, little to light damage, escalating as reports came in from sites closer to the epicentre.

"Radiation readings nominal. That was _not_ nuclear."

"Incoming trackers all clear," the range commander reported. "It was not ballistic. Still no aircraft in range."

"They must be _very_ strong," Fareeha muttered, "to carry that much conventional..."

"Multiple teleporter signals, just now!" The operative rechecked her board. "Not before the explosion. Just now."

"How did they get..." Moria started to ask, before Fareeha interrupted. "Direction?!"

"East northeast. It's an old style signal - first generation. Range no more than 3km."

Tracer's voice popped in over comms. "Brigadier, Mum - they're teleporting out!"

"Do not send forces directly to destination," Amari interjected, sharply. "D.va, new orders. Spiral search from site, immediately. They're headed east northeast, towards the Iranian border, but make it look like you don't know. Find them in a search pattern."

"So they don't know we can track teleporters. Got it. Spiralling out."

" _A leanbh_ ," Moira asked, "are you all right? Angela, Emily, Danielle, Michael, please, are you..."

Fareeha interrupted, her voice brisk and businesslike. "All Weapons, do _everything you can_ to keep those soldiers here. Alive or dead. Whatever it takes." Fareeha hesitated for a moment. "But try to keep at least one alive. We need information."

"On it. And mum - relax. We're good."

"Angela, please, Michael, _are you all right?_ " Moira asked again. _Data is one thing, but I want to **know**._

"Michael and I are here, beloveds," Angela said over comms, and the two people to whom it applied most glanced at each other, relieved. "His comm unit is out, but he's beside me."

"They got Koschei," Athena said, interrupting in turn, anger in her synthesised voice. "He is gone."

"We don't know that yet," Amari said, wishing she believed it.

"Yes," Athena said, having coaxed a coherent frame out of a wrecked drone, showing the destroyed omnium holding facility. "We do."

\-----

"Operation successful."

The coded burst transmission couldn't mean much without knowing everything there was to know about the frequency spread, the encoding system, the timing, and more, but if you knew all those things, it said everything that needed to be said.

The burst included other data - "survival rate: 8%. dust rate: 20%. evacuation route: option 1. pickup achievement probability: low" - but the 'successful' meant everything.

This time, the omnium was dead. Powderised. For sure.

Katya let herself relax, just a little, just for a moment, inside, but kept it all carefully hidden, as she turned to face her generals in the war room.

"Now," she asked, "was that so difficult?"

\-----

The pieces had been picked up. 50 soldiers, 20 cybernetics researchers, a dozen staff at the omnium facility, all quite dead, most - but not all - too dead to resurrect, even for Angela. Brains are, still, so very fragile. Particularly human brains.

She and Michael worked as best they could, restoring memories of the ones they could, for those revived, but with brains injured. All would recover, in time, but not necessarily with all their memories intact - some things, once lost, could not be restored, not even by Angela. Particularly not in humans.

Russia, of course, crowed that Oasis's inability to defend Koschei from "Talon" as proof that they were right, that Oasis wasn't fit - that no one was fit, really - to hold an omnium, and that perhaps Egypt's project should be completely shut down as well. Several nations, for the sake of diplomacy, pretend to believe the story, hoping Oasis - with no more prize to defend - would be forced back to the table. Russia said it was - as always - more than willing to negotiate a proper peace.

It took the gods two days to have time to talk to Overwatch.

"Biotic enhancements. Ceramic bone lamination. Slow twitch muscle lattice augmentation. All hallmarks of the SEP. How exactly did Russia gain access to those technologies?”

Angela Ziegler stared directly into Strike Commander Morrison's eyes, looking directly _at_ him, fully well knowing how intimidating it was, even over comms.

"Well?"

Jack Morrison genuinely didn't know how to handle the situation. He wanted to, but didn't. "How should we know? That project predates Overwatch - we never had anything to do with it. You know that."

"I do. And yet, there it is. The same technology. In use. Again."

The strike commander’s brows knit. "...exactly the same?"

"Essentially. A single step forward, perhaps. No more."

Morrison searched his memory for any clue, any lead. "We thought the American records had been destroyed. But the US government wasn't exactly in control of the west for years. Someone could've..."

Angela glared at him, clearly displeased. "I know that as well as you do. I don't need a history lesson. We don’t think it was just _records._ "

 _Uh oh_ , the commander thought. _That's bad._ "What do you want from me, Angela? Blind guesses?"

"The best way to restart it would've been... with a surviving subject. To build, from there."

Morrison blinked, then paled. _No. You don't think..._ "Are you intimating that I... that I..." He looked at Angela with dismay. "Do you think I would put other people through what Gabriel and I went through? For _anything?_ "

She moved closer to the camera, peering, a goddess determined to know what she was pretty sure she already knew.

"That's the question, isn't it?"

"It's _not_ a question."

"Then tell me you weren't involved, _Jack._ Tell me it is a coincidence their soldiers fought _just like you_ , and make me believe it. Tell me how the Russians might have achieved all this... if it wasn't with _your help?_ "

Morrison looked right back at her, doing his best to be unintimidated, and almost - almost - pulling it off.

"I have no more idea than you do."

**Author's Note:**

> This is the sixteenth instalment of _Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict_. To follow the story, [subscribe to the series via this link](https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024), rather than to the individual works.


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